Yesterday David DiBiase, in his role as as a "project advisor" with the GeoTech Center, shared the news on Facebook that National Science Foundation declined to provide the center with a second round of funding. The four years of funding ran 2008-2012 under award 0801893. (My colleague Joe Francica is also an advisor on the project.)
The GeoTech Center review meeting began this morning with the disappointing news that NSF declined to renew the Center’s funding for an additional four years. PI Philip Davis received the Program Officer’s email late last night.
It's certainly a setback for community colleges and for the entire GIS education community. GeoTech is the closest thing we’ve had to an organization comparable in scale to NCGIA but wholly dedicated to geospatial education and training. Still, whether the GeoTech Center rebounds or not, some of its initiatives are too important to forsake. First and foremost, the GTCM needs to be updated, curated, and promoted—with or without NSF support. Now the task facing me and other project advisers is to help the team regroup, re-prioritize, and rethink next steps.
This is an unfortunate loss of funding; there is still much work to be done.
